Drew Magary's epic rant: "Where the Hell Is Barack Obama?"

The anger is justified, for a reason Magary cites yet does little to explore:

"In office, Obama did very little to significantly alter a status quo designed to protect itself."

That's it in a nutshell.

I was an Obama fan in the beginning, and continued to find it useful to invoke his name to dog-whistle the drooling fascists and slack-jawed racists, even after it started becoming clear that little would be accomplished during his eight years in office. It was hard for me to concede this truth.

Obama really did assemble a fan base, which remained largely unused, much as George McClellan built the Army of the Potomac into a powerful military machine that the general refused to take into battle.

Magary hits home:

"The influence that Obama has left on the table (during the pandemic) has been so staggering as to be obscene. What’s even worse is that his void has been filled by a bunch of his former operatives who have used the Obama brand name to burnish their own halos while they do and say patently awful shit."

Just like Clueless Joe Biden. Thing is, all this was obvious while Obama still occupied the office.

Where the Hell Is Barack Obama?, by Drew Magary (Medium)

I’m sick of Obama staying above the fray while that fray is swallowing us whole

My patience with Barack Obama’s patience is at an end. Since leaving office at the beginning of 2017, the former president made it his priority to lay low. Under normal circumstances, no one could begrudge him that choice. He had just been president for eight years. He was tired. His family was tired. He had more than earned the right to fuck off and enjoy himself, especially given the endless stream of bullshit he had to endure as our first black president.

These are far beyond normal circumstances and he no longer has that right. Over 20,000 Americans are dead. In a blink, national unemployment levels are about to blow the Great Depression’s metrics out of the water. States that are on life support have been forced to compete for vital goods because the federal government has abandoned them. Congress is on fucking VACATION. We’re living through a national death spiral. Right now.

So where are you, Barack Obama? I’m not asking that wistfully. This is not a folk song. I wanna know: WHERE THE FUCK ARE YOU? Oh, Obama is still tweeting good tweets. That’s very nice of him. Know who else is tweeting? All of us. Know what it’s gotten us? NOTHING ...

From the Indiana Chamber of Commerce through Bob Hall and Jeff Gahan, "The Problem With Indiana Is Indianans."

Bold text is mine. Thanks to M for this stellar link.

If you see Wendy Dant Chesser at an oligarch's flesh-presser ... it may be wise not to mention your choice of reading material.

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Half Past the Month: The Problem With Indiana Is Indianans? by Craig Ladwig (Indiana Policy Review)

READING RECENT REMARKS on the state economy by the president of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce, you are right to be troubled, even take offense. Was he saying that the problem with Indiana is Indianans?

“It is evident that a lack of (skilled) workers, unhealthy lifestyle choices and limited Indiana-based funding to grow promising companies is keeping the state from realizing its full potential,” he was quoted as saying by the Goshen News.

That can be read as mere constructive criticism, kindly exhorting us to be better people and more generous with our money. It tracks, though, with a leadership trend of recent years of lamenting the unworthiness of a citizenry.

The pluperfect example is Charlestown, Indiana, where the city has decided that an entire section (and by implication the citizens living there) is unsightly. The mayor is using every means possible to push these deplorables out.

This is not new. Rulers have always coveted a higher class citizenry within their realms. And even though kings on occasion took action to improve the peasantry’s lot — health, living conditions, etc. — it was not to be confused with humanitarianism. Here is the economist Ludwig von Mises writing about commoners living under the Prussian House of Hohenzollern:

“A king was eager to increase the wealth of the peasantry and the townsfolk because their income was the source from which his revenue was derived. He was not interested in the subject but in the taxpayer. He wanted to derive from his administration of the country the means to increase his power and splendor. . . . They encouraged commerce, trade, mining, and agriculture in order to raise the public revenue. The subjects, however, were simply pawns in the game of the rulers.”

Dr. Maryann O. Keating and Dr. Barry Keating have an idea. The two economists, summarizing research on the sense of well-being in various Indiana communities, suggest in the summer issue of The Indiana Policy Review that leadership adopt policies that serve current citizens, warts and all, not import better ones.

“Good democratic governance is not about changing the occupational structure or population of a town in order to improve its rankings or to mimic amenities preferred by affluent communities,” they conclude.

In any case, it would seem easier to replace a ruler, a leadership, than a citizenry, which, crudely, is the core thought of Western Civilization. And come to think about it, although I don’t know the president of the Indiana Chamber of Commerce I have a friend in another state who carries a more impressive resume. Perhaps it is time for new blood at that institution.

My friend tells me that Hoosiers seem to him to be a fine bunch of people. Moreover, he is photogenic and — this must be said as kindly as possible lest anybody take offense — he isn’t overweight or losing his hair.

ON THE AVENUES: Kind-a full-a you know what, but now we're going to find out whether Jeff Gahan has any cattle under his hat.

ON THE AVENUES: Kind-a full-a you know what, but now we're going to find out whether Jeff Gahan has any cattle under his hat. 

A weekly column by Roger A. Baylor.

---

Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be
What thou art promis'd. Yet do I fear thy nature,
It is too full o' th' milk of human kindness
To catch the nearest way.
- Lady Macbeth

A little more than a year ago, Leadership Southern Indiana held a New Albany mayoral debate, and one candidate conspicuously declined to attend.

More than a year later, on the day after the 2016 election, Mayor Jeff Gahan finally climbed aboard the Leadership Southern Indiana bus.

Literally.

The bus stopped in front of The Grand, and prior to my Discovery 2017 class disembarking, Gahan got on. Blocking the only potential escape route except his own, he stood at the front of the bus and offered a few words about New Gahania in an emerging Time of Trump.

As Gahan’s many handlers long have noted, and tended to plan the mayor's schedule accordingly, his agoraphobia manifests itself in the usual way.

Agoraphobia (ag-uh-ruh-FOE-be-uh) is a type of anxiety disorder in which you fear and often avoid places or situations that might cause you to panic and make you feel trapped, helpless or embarrassed.

It isn’t that Gahan fears human contact. He fears unscripted situations in public settings, and when compelled to interact with people in such places, he generally over-compensates, displaying a forced, cheerleader-level of excitement, which at best is chatty, though usually comes off as just plain strange.

However, give this man a proper script, show him the markings, block it out, and he invariably succeeds in appearing “mayoral,” whatever that really means. Team Gahan knows this, and extemporaneous environments are studiously avoided, because it’s anyone's guess what might come out of the mayor’s mouth amid the escalating inner panic.

On Wednesday, standing there on a bus chartered by an organization he shunned, nothing was written on paper, and the results were predictably weird.

However – amazingly – Gahan got something right when he conceded that downtown New Albany’s revitalization owes primarily to risks taken and investments made by independent business persons and entrepreneurs, not City Hall.

This was a startling admission, given that Gahan’s re-election campaign was predicated on taking personal credit for the city’s improved prospects. In addition, it doesn’t jibe with Team Gahan’s day-to-day municipal governance, which relies on Goebbelsian marketing and rule-of-plaques, both real and metaphorical, as erected by Gahan’s various funding mechanisms and the toadies manning them.

Still, it was a factual utterance, and worthy of note.

---

Then, in closing, Gahan actually said something interesting, though not before somehow confusing a busload of local residents for visitors from Omaha, by expressing the misplaced hope that they would enjoy their “stay” here.

I’ll paraphrase:

The most important thing for you to remember about New Albany, and what we always remind everyone, is that we’re a kind city.

That’s kind, as in affectionate, loving, helpful, benevolent, and displaying the qualities of kindness.

Whether this assertion is true isn’t the point.

Rather, in spite of Gahan’s odd suggestion that his statement functions as some sort of widely embraced local mantra, it’s the very first time I’ve heard him express this sentiment by using the precise word “kind.”

And, since it isn’t in the mayor’s nature to be improvisational, the word – the concept, this mantra – must have been planted by someone, at some point in advance. He’s simply not good enough with words to pull “kind” from the ether.

It’s just my opinion, but I think it’s no coincidence that Gahan introduced this fresh new concept of a “kind” city on the afternoon following a smoldering train wreck of an election on the part of his Floyd County Democratic Party, a topic covered elsewhere: ON THE AVENUES: Don't be a Dickey, local Democrats. The verdict is in, and it's time for a change.

The last county election cycle was in 2014, and it was just as catastrophic for the Democrats as Tuesday. In 2015, the New Albany city council lost its Democratic majority, and 12 percentage points came off Mayor Jeff Gahan’s big 2011 total, bringing him within easy reach of the GOP in 2019, assuming the latter can locate a man or woman with the minimum requirement of a pulse.

My guess: In Gahan’s mind, he’s the last courageous bastion of blue “values” in a sea of red, hence his trial balloon of a “kind" city, this vision temporarily supplanting the woeful anchor-in-river-mud chosen by Sheriff Duggins as a “branding” mechanism for our burg.

The truth is more complex. As laudable as Come to Our Kind City might be, it will take more than just words to meet the challenges ahead of us. In Floyd County as a whole, Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton by a whisker shy of twenty percentage points, recording almost 60% of the total votes cast for president.

Meanwhile, and although I don’t have time to run all the precinct numbers, Councilman Greg Phipps’ 3rd council district (precincts 3, 5, 7 and 10) in the center of the city went solidly for Clinton 1,020 to 791.

Unfortunately, when it comes to a platform of positions aimed at meeting the urban realities of the local Trump landslide, Gahan’s got next to nothing.

True, the mayor has made vague gestures of symbolic support for the city’s vulnerable communities, but talk is cheap, and not once in almost five years has he risked political capital to step beyond this into concrete proposals.

Now likely is the time, seeing as “quality of life” just took on a whole new connotation. For the foreseeable future, we’re going to be grappling with an Orwellian social phase, as summarized by the novelist’s phrase: “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.”

Thus far, regrettably, Jeff Gahan’s mayoral legacy has been one of detached passivity in every area save for the utilization of funding schemes sufficient to erect bright, shiny objects of the sort appreciated primarily by a sizable number of voters who just opted for Trump.

Just as tragically, far too many of the city's progressives have consciously accepted Gahan's purely Faustian bargain: In return for City Hall's lip service on social agendas, the mayor's financially ruinous program of heroic monument construction is overlooked.

As the young folks like to say, on Tuesday shit got real.

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Beyond a hope for simple human kindness shared by many of us, and as ironically expressed to a group currently engaged in a leadership exercise, itself sponsored by an organization Gahan previously sidestepped with vapid nonchalance, does the mayor actually have what it takes to lead when the going starts getting tough?

I don’t think Gahan knows the answer himself, but history's tides move to their own rhythm, and he’s going to find out, sooner rather than later.

So are the rest of us. It's been that kind of week, after all.

---

November 10: ON THE AVENUES: Don't be a Dickey, local Democrats. The verdict is in, and it's time for a change.

November 3: ON THE AVENUES: It’s our big fat Hibbardendum, and Jeff Gahan is carrying the superintendent across the threshold as Metro United Way tosses rice and One Southern Indiana steals all the liquor.

October 27: ON THE AVENUES: It's NAC's 12th birthday, and the beatings will continue until morale improves.

October 20: ON THE AVENUES: Key events in the New Albanian rebirth, but first, a piccolo of grappa, per favore.

A simple PDF from Lynchburg VA shows how Jeff Gahan might have chosen to educate NA about two-way streets, but didn't. And won't.

I'm not sure I've seen a better succinct presentation of the facts.

Granted, the likes of Irv Stumler would use this sheet as metaphorical toilet paper, but shouldn't Irv stick to his flowers ... and shouldn't Jeff Gahan have spent the past two years disseminating information like this, as a leader, rather than cowering in his campaign finance bunker?

In New Albany, as in St. Paul: "Finding the Political Will to Fix 'Four-Lane Death Roads.'"

In the aftermath of Chloe Allen's death at the ridiculously dangerous intersection of Spring and Vincennes, we've waited in vain for City Hall to register a response.

A pedestrian was killed, another was sent to the ground two weeks later, and the city's Board of Public Works and Safety didn't so much as mention either occurrence.

Through private channels only, a city functionary held that forthcoming changes to Spring between Beharrell and Vincennes would heroically pave the way for future change.

We've also been told that getting walkers across a busy street is impossible, because the street is busy, and it's busy because it's not controlled, and we'll do nothing to control it -- see, impossible.

What City Hall forever seems unable to grasp is that elected and appointed officials are there to lead. Circling wagons and pouring five more feet of concrete around the down-low bunker do not qualify as leadership.

I'd describe these acts as institutional cowardice.

But I wouldn't dare insult the institutionalized.

Finding the Political Will to Fix “Four-Lane Death Roads”, by Angie Schmitt (Streetsblog)

A mother was killed as she crossed this “four-lane death road” in St. Paul last week. The victim was 32-year-old Erin Elizabeth Dunham, who was dropping her kid off at the bus. She was walking in the crosswalk on Maryland Avenue, a four-lane, high-speed road running through an urban area.

Local officials know Maryland Avenue is dangerous, which is why the intersection where Dunham was killed was recently the site of a “crosswalk safety awareness campaign.” But the campaign was not enough to prevent Dunham’s death.

What a street like Maryland Avenue needs, says Lindeke, is a road diet to shorten crossing distances and calm motor vehicle traffic by narrowing it to one car lane in each direction and a center turn lane. The hard part is the politics, he writes:

The first road-diet hurdle is institutional. Advocates and leaders have to convince city staff, and public works engineers in particular, that the “loss” of “level of service” (LOS) is worth the “gain” of safety. Making the argument that “more congestion is OK” can be challenging, especially for people in institutions that have spent decades fighting against congestion, or who might see crashes as inevitable accidents. (One common response, at least in Ramsey County, is that any increase in congestion makes streets less safe because drivers will become angry and begin driving erratically. I call this the “LOS extortion argument,” and I don’t think it’s accurate. Rather, I think you can change and “calm” our driving culture through engineering and other efforts.)

ON THE AVENUES REWOUND: Forever NA, the wrong way ... from 2012, through 2014, to 2016 and beyond, forever more.

ON THE AVENUES: Forever NA, the wrong way ... from 2012, through 2014, to 2016 and beyond, forever more.

A weekly column by Roger A. Baylor.

April, 2016 

Years pass. The Speck study has come and gone. As we speak, it is being distorted into unrecognizable gibberish by the engineering firm that employs the wife of the economic development director. Amid four years of rampant nothingness, the only concrete objective ever aired publicly by Jeff Gahan was his intention to take action prior to the advent of bridge tolls. Now, he's conceded that even that is beyond his abilities. There'll be campaign finance monetization. It's the only thing we can ever truly count on.

August, 2014

Last week I was reassured by a City Hall insider that all systems are "go", and that once Jeff Speck tells them what to do, and provides political cover accordingly, an amazingly comprehensive effort will commence, virtually overnight, to radically remake New Albany's streets.

This despite non-urban meister-planner John Rosenbarger's ongoing and bizarre personal conviction that quaint small-town ambiance and one-way arterial streets are somehow congruous.

I genuinely appreciate the time, explanations, maps and charts. At the same time, as a good friend pointed out just the other day ...

Isn't it queer that the individuals most supportive of walkability and 2-way traffic are the least optimistic that it will happen in New Albany? The top 10, the top 100, the top 1000 ... whatever set you choose, those are the ones who expect to be screwed again.

And sorry, but I do expect to be screwed again.

Yes, I believe some of these people believe what they're saying, but historically in New Albany, saying and doing are two completely different functions. Even if the Democratic Party permits one to believe in any platform of ideas differing from the iron imperative of localized patronage politics, bringing these beliefs to fruition requires character, individuality and courage of the sort that usually migrated long before the previous (or next) election.

Moreover, my persistent pessimism derives from the unwillingness of these very same people to say aloud what they disseminate by whispers in private. In my world, if you believe in something, you advocate for it -- you go all in -- and this has not been the case, and likely won't be.

Thanks, but look, I don't need convincing as to the efficacy of two-way, completed streets in New Albany; after all, I've been among those few openly urging street reform. City Hall's embargo on information does not an enlightenment campaign launch. The city could have been doing this for three years, and has chosen silence. I believe this is ominous.

Me? I need convincing that street grid reform actually will take place. That's where the soles of my shoes meet the road, and that's why this column from April, 2012, illustrates yet again how much time has been lost to the city's perennial, numbing, fear-laden conservatism.

April, 2012

It was a fairly deserted Saturday afternoon in downtown New Albany. At around 12:30 p.m., I was afoot near the northeast corner of Spring and E. 5th Streets, walking westbound. Doing so strikes me as perfectly ordinary, but in “Drive Thru City”, nothing’s ever as simple as seems.

I’ve recently concurred with suggestions that in L’America, walking by choice rather than fiscal constraint is a revolutionary act. Here in New Albany, there are further innate complications, such as determining where those relative few who really do walk the city streets actually place their feet.

One might sensibly imagine that sidewalks, which are conceived, constructed and maintained to accommodate walkers, would be the proper venue for walking. But in New Albany, the minority of bipeds not otherwise engaged in driving cars and motorcycles has an alarming tendency to wander onto the asphalt, often pausing in mid-avenue for lunch, cigarettes, high tea or random sex acts.

Of course, the garbage generated by these activities is deposited onto the street, although that’s another topic, for another day.

---

The old Coyle Chevrolet property basked in its peculiar open-air limbo to my immediate right as I drew closer to the crosswalk at 5th and Spring. I thought to myself: If the city father and mothers weren’t so busy fluffing and re-fluffing the penniless Mainland Properties cadre, something actually might become of the critically positioned Coyle acreage, which now is being used only as temporary housing for the fire museum (which probably can’t afford to buy it), storage for family yard-sale heirlooms, and as mute testimony to our eternally misplaced redevelopment priorities.

It is highly doubtful that any of these idle considerations were in the mind of the driver, southbound on 5th Street, whose sporty convertible approached the intersection just in front of me. Owing to the generalized distracted cluelessness of local drivers, I’m conditioned on a daily basis to personal vigilance and assumed the car would block my path at the crosswalk. Amazingly, it came to a stop behind the line. The driver was spot-on. He looked east, made eye contact with me, and then studied the one-way traffic on Spring coming toward him from the left.

However, he failed to look west (to his right), at least until he began to ease out onto Spring Street, when I saw his head suddenly jerk as he spotted the blithering idiot on his bicycle, merrily traveling eastbound in the westbound bike lane, against one-way vehicular traffic, despite the plain – if locally unobserved – fact that bicyclists are bound to observe the same traffic rules as motorists.

In truth, I’ve personally seen this particular vagrant bicyclist (he’s not out there for the exercise, boys and girls) traveling the wrong way on Spring Street so many times that I’ve lost count of them. I’m guessing the policeman who lately has been standing idly across Spring from my house monitoring traffic (is he intending to jog after the chronic speeders?) has spotted the wrong-way cyclist, too, but of course nothing ever happens, because after all, this is New Albany (“Enforce Not City”).

Fortunately for driver and bicyclist on Saturday afternoon at the intersection of 5th and Spring, nothing bad came of it. There was a good ten-foot gap between them, and both had time to stop and reassess the situation. The driver completed his right-hand turn onto Spring, and the bicyclist, a fiftyish man who lives in an apartment up the street from me, continued cycling the wrong way, just as he’d been doing prior to nearly causing an accident that would have injured him far worse than the convertible.

As for me, I just couldn’t take it. I called out at him: You know, dude, you’re going the wrong damned way, and it isn’t safe for anyone.

He merely laughed maniacally, rather like those folks who’ve long since ceased taking their meds, and kept right on going in the same direction.

So did I, so do the police, and so does City Hall. In reality, had this wrong way cyclist heeded my advice, it is likely he would have moved his two-wheeler to the sidewalk, which is yet another place an adult bicyclist should not be. Maybe that’s why the walkers end up lounging in the bike lane.

2016 insert: ADA compliance? You don't want to go there, and neither does City Hall.

---

We all routinely dismiss near misses and minor occurrences like the one recounted here, and because we do, nothing is done, and consequently, minor problems gradually escalate into bigger ones. Inevitably, there will be a collision, and when there is, all recent prevailing evidence in the metropolitan Louisville area indicates that the driver of the car won’t be prosecuted. The culture of automotive non-accountability will thus be perpetuated, to the further detriment of those who try to share the road.

And when this inevitable tragedy finally happens, I’ll rush to the laptop to channel my outrage into words, but something will nag me, namely my dozens of memories of similar occurrences, and the realization that however much I prefer denouncing incompetent, distracted and unfit motorists, who richly deserve censure, it’s also true that bicyclists and walkers are part of the problem … and the solution.

Ideally, we all should be able to share our use of city streets and sidewalks with some semblance of equality, but in order to do so, there must be a shared sense of responsibility – and as my own experience has shown, one person acting alone, trying to engage the chronically addled and errant, stands little chance of deterring non-constructive behaviors.

Right now, there isn’t any prevailing notion of responsibility when it comes to how walkers, riders and drivers interact, and no obvious plan to improve the prospects for it. New Albany streets are designed and maintained almost exclusively to appease the automobile, and so adult cyclists who either don’t now any better or are plain scared of traffic pedal against the grain, or get on the sidewalk. When is the last time anyone in a position of authority (i.e., wearing a uniform) made any of this clear to anyone?

Meanwhile, I still dream of the day when we, as a city, decide that humans are more important than their cars. Unfortunately, we may have to run out of petroleum before the discussion can begin.

---

April 7: ON THE AVENUES: The Six Session Beers of Session Beer Day.

March 31: ON THE AVENUES: Abortion? Wichita, or maybe Targu Mures.

March 24: ON THE AVENUES: Introducing New Albany Craft Beer Week, May 27 – June 4, 2016.

March 17: ON THE AVENUES: Erin Go Blagh -- a timeless classic for a green-hued holiday.

Bored of works? Try this: "St. Paul launches effort to change the city's driving culture — by enforcing crosswalk laws."

This sentence bears repeating, again and again, until Jeff Gahan, Warren Nash and the rest of the politicians wearing blinders with pride decide to stick hesitant, tepid toes outside their auto-centric comfort zones and have a stab at reality.

But the crash was a classic example of the tragedy of the crosswalk, where safety and laws say one thing, but speed and the street say another.

Imagine public officials committed to changing a hazardous culture rather than burying their heads in the sand. Gracious, up there in St. Paul, it's almost like they're trying to lead.

Must be their water. Or ours.

St. Paul launches effort to change the city's driving culture — by enforcing crosswalk laws, by Bill Lindeke (Minn Post)

Shelby Kokesch was killed last week trying to cross the street, on her way from the Minnesota History Center to the other side of busy Kellogg Boulevard. As Kokesch and her mother stepped out into traffic, one car stopped to let her pass, following the technicalities of Minnesota's crosswalk law. But the second car, an SUV, did not.

I'm sure the driver feels horrible; nobody wants to drive into people. But the crash was a classic example of the tragedy of the crosswalk, where safety and laws say one thing, but speed and the street say another.

The death also marks an inauspicious beginning as safety advocates and the St. Paul Police Department launch the city’s most ambitious campaign yet aimed at changing St. Paul’s driving culture. All year long, teams of neighbors and police will conduct stings aimed at shifting the priorities of St. Paul streets, one ticket at a time.

Walkability: "Most current zoning ordinances are a combination of good intentions producing bad outcomes for most places."

Once again, rational argumentation "driving" home the point that design prefigures outcomes. If the community is to be walkable, these legal an procedural hurdles must be eased ... and this easing cannot occur without leadership from the top.

We Want More Walkable Neighborhoods -- but Can Our Communities Deliver?, by F. Kaid Benfield (Huffington Post)

... Communities wishing to build walkable neighborhoods or retrofit old ones to be more welcoming and useful to pedestrians face an array of challenges, from lending practices that favor conventional suburban development based on automobile-first design to outdated zoning and regulatory schemes that effectively prohibit things like corner stores mixed with residences, a diversity of housing types in the same development, and pedestrian-first design that places building entrances closer to sidewalks.

While historic neighborhoods and other older but now "nonconforming" walkable development are essentially "grandfathered" in, plans for new construction that seek to mimic those older neighborhoods can seldom be permitted as a matter of right; instead, they must face a gauntlet of legal and procedural hurdles in order to obtain variances and special permissions. This makes the entitlement process for walkability more lengthy, expensive, and uncertain, assuring that in most communities it will remain the exception, not the rule. In the words of Atlanta architect Eric Bethany, "most current zoning ordinances are a combination of good intentions producing bad outcomes for most places."

Jeremy Corbyn: In the UK, Labour "takes a turn to the left."

The analogy isn't perfect by any stretch, but think of Corbyn as a sort of Bernie Sanders with Vindaloo and a nice pint of Bitter.

Labour leadership: Jeremy Corbyn elected with huge mandate; Election of backbench MP and anti-war campaigner means party now has one of the most leftwing, anti-establishment leaders in its history, by Rowena Mason (The Guardian)

Jeremy Corbyn has been elected leader of the British Labour party, in a stunning first-round victory that dwarfed even the mandate for Tony Blair in 1994.

Corbyn won with nearly 59.5% of first-preference votes, beating rivals Andy Burnham, who trailed on 19%, and Yvette Cooper who received 17%. The “Blairite” candidate Liz Kendall came last on 4.5%.

Minutes after his victory, Corbyn said the message is that people are “fed up with the injustice and the inequality” of Britain.

“The media and many of us, simply didn’t understand the views of young people in our country. They were turned off by the way politics was being conducted. We have to and must change that. The fightback gathers speed and gathers pace,” he said.

Previously, at Al Jazeera:

Corbyn prepares to lead UK Labour Party amid socialist surge; A once unthinkable reality materializes in Britain, as left-wing politician rides anti-austerity wave, by James Maxwell (Al Jazeera)

Corbyn’s supporters argue that their candidate will breathe new life into British socialism. They say his air of rumpled authenticity, coupled with his staunch opposition to Tory-imposed spending cuts, chimes with the populist mood sweeping European politics that has seen leftist parties win power and influence in countries like Spain and Greece.

“Jeremy is winning because he offers something different, something Labour members can campaign for and believe in,” said Andrew Smith, a Labour activist and former local council candidate in northern London.

“He represents the idea of power as an instrument of change, rather than power for its own sake … It is telling that he’s the only candidate to inspire people to join the party in large numbers.”

What they're saying: Roseberry, Knable, Staten and Rutherford.

As the weeks go past in route to May's primary election, I'm providing periodic candidate statements of substance, mostly unretouched, as lifted from social media and news reports. Familiar gems such as "yard signs win elections, not people" and "donate to my campaign first, and maybe I'll have something of merit to say much, much later" will be omitted. That's because it is my aim to determine whether our declared candidates have anything to say at all, and I'll quote all candidates, from any and all parties, whether or not they're in a contested race. Just promising change and new ideas without divulging them won't cut the mustard, aspirants.

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Hannegan Roseberry (D, at-large council) and Al Knable (R, at-large council) continue to buck the close-lipped traditions of their respective parties by speaking and writing openly about the real world. Hannegan leads off with two postings at her Facebook campaign page.

First, on the topic of standing up for what you believe:

I feel we have a real problem on our hands when our elected officials refuse to give simple yes or no answers to questions. When you are an elected official and you refuse to give your thoughts on a subject, then I politely suggest that you hang up your hat. Whether it be something as obvious as Two-Way Streets in a city like New Albany, or something as colossal (and sinister) as RFRA, you have an obligation to be transparent on your stance. You were elected by the people (granted, a very small amount of the people of Indiana, see my earlier posts about voter apathy in the Hoosier state), and you owe them transparency. This doesn't mean that your opinions can, or even should, please everyone at all times. I think that is another tricky corner that too many elected officials get themselves into, trying to please everyone at all times by committing to nothing and towing every line "just in case." Be bold, be educated, and stand strongly for the things you believe in.

And, on women in local politics.

Wonder Women - Where Are You?

Where are the women candidates? In our upcoming city primary elections, there are a mere five female candidates out of 28, and only two of those women are challengers (myself included). Last time I checked, one out of every two human beings are female - why are we not stepping up to the plate to lead at that same level?

Al enthusiastically riffs on an idea previously discussed by Hannegan.

I won't pretend that encouraging a civic theater in New Albany is my idea. Hannegan Roseberry discussed it on her page a few days ago. Randy Smith proposed the Baptist Tabernacle site as a possible location with me several weeks ago. The thought's been kicked around for years. In fact, I remember Jim Anderson's wife, Mary, advocating this 40 years ago. But heck, I can recognize a great idea!

A civic theater would be yet one more draw to downtown and everyone knows when the show lets out people love to eat or hit their favorite night spot.

The old Tabernacle building might prove multi-functional. When not in use for shows it could easily serve as a site for other public forums.

As NA doesn't have unlimited funds, and as there are numerous pressing needs, I see this as a project facilitated rather than fully funded by the city. Even so, this is definitely a cause I'd support, allowing others (Mrs. R?) to champion.

(OMG -- candidates from opposite parties, agreeing on social media as to the virtues of an idea? I don't know about Al's arbiters, but Hannegan can expect an unannounced visit from Warren "I used to be mayor, pal" Nash's "purity of absolute silence" department)

Over in the 6th district, Democratic council hopeful Dr. Cliff Staten sensibly asks, "What will New Albany do to attract and keep younger generations here?"

Working Today to Build Tomorrow

Elections are about the future. Think about New Albany 5 years from now… now picture it 10 years from now… how about 20? How do you picture New Albany in the future? How would you like to picture New Albany in the future?

To me, the future starts with our young people; it starts with our children and our grandchildren. How do we picture their New Albany?

Meanwhile in the 5th district, Tonye Rutherford is back with a Facebook campaign page. He has an opponent in the Republican primary (Danita Burks), as does the incumbent Diane Benedetti (Dustin Collins).

Tonye Rutherford for New Albany City Council District 5

This is Tonye Rutherford, I am running for City Council in the 5th District. After narrowly losing by 21 votes in 2011, I have been busy ... I have since been appointed to the New Albany Floyd County Library board where I serve as the president, I was appointed to the New Albany Human Rights Commission and serve as the Chairman, I was appointed to the Floyd County Corrections board and elected to the Emmaus board.

Have you spotted substance omitted here? Let me know. The primary's only five weeks away.

Looking ahead to city elections in 2015, the Floyd County GOP has a new central committee.

"Please welcome the new Floyd County Republican Party Central Committee: Chairman, Chris Lane, Vice Chair, Aaron Minnich, Secretary, Dale Bagshaw and Treasurer, Shawn Carruthers."

One out of two proper spellings of Dale Bagshaw's name isn't that bad.

Until proven otherwise, what this reshuffle means to me is that fresh off its recent lopsided wins in the county, Republicans are serious about contending city elections in 2015. Dave Matthews got what he was capable of getting in the county, and a new slate will renew efforts in the city.

I'm no Republican, but it's fairly clear that the party's urban odds have gotten far better in the aftermath of its 2014 county/state performance, and more significantly, in comparison with the continued deterioration of the Demo-Dixiecrat political machine, in both mechanics and intellectual content.

Insurgent lines grow ever more sharp. Voting Republican is one thing, but building a credible alternative to our exhausted and cowardly Democrats is something else entirely. You'd think the latter couldn't afford to lose its left wing during challenging times like these, but you may be giving the censors in charge a little bit too much credit for tactical grasp.

It's fairly certain that Dave Matthews and I disagree on most issues, but I'll give him his due: As he steps aside, he has left his forces in fine fettle.

What does Adam Dickey carry in his wallet?

Perhaps a post-it note with U-Haul prices is advisable.

ON THE AVENUES REWOUND: Forever NA, the wrong way.

ON THE AVENUES: Forever NA, the wrong way ... from April, 2012.

A weekly web column by Roger A. Baylor.

Last week I was reassured by a City Hall insider that all systems are "go", and that once Jeff Speck tells them what to do, and provides political cover accordingly, an amazingly comprehensive effort will commence, virtually overnight, to radically remake New Albany's streets.

This despite non-urban meister-planner John Rosenbarger's ongoing and bizarre personal conviction that quaint small-town ambience and one-way arterial streets are somehow congruous.

I genuinely appreciate the time, explanations, maps and charts. At the same time, as a good friend pointed out just the other day ...

Isn't it queer that the individuals most supportive of walkability and 2-way traffic are the least optimistic that it will happen in New Albany? The top 10, the top 100, the top 1000 ... whatever set you choose, those are the ones who expect to be screwed again.

And sorry, but I do expect to be screwed again. 

Yes, I believe these people believe what they're saying, but historically in New Albany, saying and doing are two completely different functions. Even if the Democratic Party permits one to believe in any platform of ideas differing from the iron imperative of localized patronage politics, bringing these beliefs to fruition requires character, individuality and courage of the sort that usually migrated long before the previous (or next) election.  

Moreover, my persistent pessimism derives from the unwillingness of these very same people to say aloud what they disseminate by whispers in private. In my world, if you believe in something, you advocate for it -- you go all in -- and this has not been the case, and likely won't be. 

Thanks, but look, I don't need convincing as to the efficacy of two-way, completed streets in New Albany; after all, I've been among those few openly urging street reform. City Hall's embargo on information does not an enlightenment campaign launch. The city could have been doing this for three years, and has chosen silence. I believe this is ominous.

Me? I need convincing that street grid reform actually will take place. That's where the soles of my shoes meet the road, and that's why this column from April, 2012, illustrates yet again how much time has been lost to the city's perennial, numbing, fear-laden conservatism.  

---

It was a fairly deserted Saturday afternoon in downtown New Albany. At around 12:30 p.m., I was afoot near the northeast corner of Spring and E. 5th Streets, walking westbound. Doing so strikes me as perfectly ordinary, but in “Drive Thru City”, nothing’s ever as simple as seems.

I’ve recently concurred with suggestions that in L’America, walking by choice rather than fiscal constraint is a revolutionary act. Here in New Albany, there are further innate complications, such as determining where those relative few who really do walk the city streets actually place their feet.

One might sensibly imagine that sidewalks, which are conceived, constructed and maintained to accommodate walkers, would be the proper venue for walking. But in New Albany, the minority of bipeds not otherwise engaged in driving cars and motorcycles has an alarming tendency to wander onto the asphalt, often pausing in mid-avenue for lunch, cigarettes, high tea or random sex acts.

Of course, the garbage generated by these activities is deposited onto the street, although that’s another topic, for another day.

---

The old Coyle Chevrolet property basked in its peculiar open-air limbo to my immediate right as I drew closer to the crosswalk at 5th and Spring. I thought to myself: If the city father and mothers weren’t so busy fluffing and re-fluffing the penniless Mainland Properties cadre, something actually might become of the critically positioned Coyle acreage, which now is being used only as temporary housing for the fire museum (which probably can’t afford to buy it), storage for family yard-sale heirlooms, and as mute testimony to our eternally misplaced redevelopment priorities.

It is highly doubtful that any of these idle considerations were in the mind of the driver, southbound on 5th Street, whose sporty convertible approached the intersection just in front of me. Owing to the generalized distracted cluelessness of local drivers, I’m conditioned on a daily basis to personal vigilance and assumed the car would block my path at the crosswalk. Amazingly, it came to a stop behind the line. The driver was spot-on. He looked east, made eye contact with me, and then studied the one-way traffic on Spring coming toward him from the left.

However, he failed to look west (to his right), at least until he began to ease out onto Spring Street, when I saw his head suddenly jerk to the right as he spotted the blithering idiot on his bicycle, merrily traveling eastbound in the westbound bike lane, against one-way vehicular traffic, despite the plain – if locally unobserved – fact that bicyclists are bound to observe the same traffic rules as motorists.

In truth, I’ve personally seen this particular vagrant bicyclist (he’s not out there for the exercise, boys and girls) traveling the wrong way on Spring Street so many times that I’ve lost count of them. I’m guessing the policeman who lately has been standing idly across Spring from my house monitoring traffic (is he intending to jog after the chronic speeders?) has spotted the wrong-way cyclist, too, but of course nothing ever happens, because after all, this is New Albany (“Enforce Not City”).

Fortunately for driver and bicyclist on Saturday afternoon at the intersection of 5th and Spring, nothing bad came of it. There was a good ten-foot gap between them, and both had time to stop and reassess the situation. The driver completed his right-hand turn onto Spring, and the bicyclist, a fiftyish man who lives in an apartment up the street from me, continued cycling the wrong way, just as he’d been doing prior to nearly causing an accident that would have injured him far worse than the convertible.

As for me, I just couldn’t take it. I called out at him: You know, dude, you’re going the wrong damned way, and it isn’t safe for anyone.

He merely laughed maniacally, rather like those folks who’ve long since ceased taking their meds, and kept right on going in the same direction.

So did I, so do the police, and so does City Hall. In reality, had this wrong way cyclist heeded my advice, it is likely he would have moved his two-wheeler to the sidewalk, which is yet another place an adult bicyclist should not be. Maybe that’s why the walkers end up lounging in the bike lane.

---

We all routinely dismiss near misses and minor occurrences like the one recounted here, and because we do, nothing is done, and consequently, minor problems gradually escalate into bigger ones. Inevitably, there will be a collision, and when there is, all recent prevailing evidence in the metropolitan Louisville area indicates that the driver of the car won’t be prosecuted. The culture of automotive non-accountability will thus be perpetuated, to the further detriment of those who try to share the road.

And when this inevitable tragedy finally happens, I’ll rush to the laptop to channel my outrage into words, but something will nag me, namely my dozens of memories of similar occurrences, and the realization that however much I prefer denouncing incompetent, distracted and unfit motorists, who richly deserve censure, it’s also true that bicyclists and walkers are part of the problem … and the solution.

Ideally, we all should be able to share our use of city streets and sidewalks with some semblance of equality, but in order to do so, there must be a shared sense of responsibility – and as my own experience has shown, one person acting alone, trying to engage the chronically addled and errant, stands little chance of deterring non-constructive behaviors.

Right now, there isn’t any prevailing notion of responsibility when it comes to how walkers, riders and drivers interact, and no obvious plan to improve the prospects for it. New Albany streets are designed and maintained almost exclusively to appease the automobile, and so adult cyclists who either don’t now any better or are plain scared of traffic pedal against the grain, or get on the sidewalk. But the sidewalk is for walkers. When is the last time anyone in a position of authority (i.e., wearing a uniform) made any of this clear to anyone?

Meanwhile, I still dream of the day when we, as a city, decide that humans are more important than their cars. Unfortunately, we may have to run out of petroleum before the discussion can begin.

As the farmers market follies morph into farce, City Hall just stands there. Why is that?

It ain't rocket science.

lead·er·ship
ˈlēdərˌSHip
noun
1.
the action of leading a group of people or an organization.
"different styles of leadership"
synonyms: guidance, direction, control, management, superintendence, supervision

Everything about the current farmers market expansion discussion is spasmodic and misdirected. It came surreptitiously from the crypt to the Board of Works last fall ...

Budgetary back alley to the Farmers Market? Let's face the music and dance.

 ... and managed to arouse in council person John Gonder and a handful of others that singular quality always guaranteed to  arouse suspicion and bile amongst the fogies -- namely, daring to think outside the box -- and in turn, this provocation sent the oft-indemnified farmers market queenpin into a tizzy ...

The farmers market discussion to too important to be left to the Marktmeister alone.

 ... leading us now to yet another repulsive example of Develop New Albany's amazing inability (read: unwillingness) to decide what "non-political" really means, and to apply the definition with consistency. Spin the wheel again, Vanna.

Develop New Albany's on-line farmers market "poll" is a reeking, juvenile cesspool of intellectual dishonesty.

So, I decided to give them a dose of their own shamelessly propagandistic medicine.

Yo, DNA: Here are some examples of OUR propaganda. You can have the hearts. We'll take the minds.

Then it occurred to me that perhaps the farmers location matters more in proximity to the Marktmeister's own building than the city as a whole.

Maybe the city could buy indoor space for the Winter Farmers Market. Would $108K do it?

Not really; I'd been holding on to that one for a while.

Back to the tip-off: Leadership.

Is City Hall exercising any of it as this annoying spectacle unfolds?

Or is the general idea to allow otherwise well-meaning people to metaphorically bash each other's brains in (speak for yourself), until none are left standing ... to demand a Speck study for the street grid but reject an economic development strategy for downtown ... to just stand there and be non-participatory?

One more time: The city needs to be stirred from its present somnolent resting place and take a share of the farmers market issue back into its possession. It is city property, and it consequently "belongs" to us all. What this looks like at present is a transparent payback to Develop New Albany's self-interested cadres, but the farmers market is far more important than just that, and its future needs to be studied with the city's active, directed, interested participation -- not the bizarrely detached passivity it has displayed thus far.

You tell 'em, Sherm.

This fine M*A*S*H moment from Season Eight came to me during a meeting yesterday, and I was delighted to find it on YouTube. This is the actor Harry Morgan's legendary Colonel Potter in a prime, high instructional leadership mode. The issue at hand is summarized, and the orders for resolution are given. Potter's subordinates grouse, but recognize they're all in it together, and react accordingly. They grasp the teaching moment, and realize the game if bigger than its component pieces.

Life should be more like this ... at least every now and then.

Am I right?

Seabrook, Clere retain Matthews: “The GOP needs someone to empty the trash and fetch some Hing Wang.”

The "local" chain newspaper reports that Dave Matthews has been re-elected chairman of the Floyd County Republican Party, ensuring another four years of valet service to the ones who actually call the shots.

NAC fully endorses the GOP's decision, seeing as Matthews is so damned entertaining, and always knows just when to top off Mark's drink.

Dickey: "As Democrats, we are committed to electing fair-minded leaders who support a responsible agenda to move our county, state and nation forward."

Incoming Floyd County Democratic Party chair Adam Dickey was nice enough to send me a copy of the official party press release explaining its quadrennial leadership selection, and so here it is its entirety.

---

March 3, 2013

NEW ALBANY - The Floyd County Democratic Central Committee announced new officers elected during their quadrennial reorganization meeting in New Albany earlier today. Adam Dickey was elected to serve as Chairman for the next four years, Stacy Deck was reelected as Vice Chair, Sarah Bonifer was elected as Secretary and Shane Gibson was elected as Treasurer.

“I am excited and honored to serve alongside my fellow Central Committee officers as we continue the critical work of improving our community and forging a strong, vibrant Democratic Party in Floyd County,” stated Dickey.

“As Democrats, we are committed to electing fair-minded leaders who support a responsible agenda to move our county, state and nation forward. We will welcome those with new ideas who would like to be involved in our work for the first time, and also recognize the valuable asset we have in our experienced Democratic supporters,” added Dickey.

At the meeting, precinct committee members also honored retiring Chairman John Wilcox, Secretary Anthony Toran, and Treasurer Doug England for their service to the local party.

Biographical information on the officers is below:

Adam Dickey – Chair
Adam Dickey brings extensive experience to the position of Chairman having served in local government positions, as a congressional aide for former Congressman Baron Hill, and on several political campaigns. He graduated from Indiana University Southeast with a B.A. in Political Science in 2000. From 2005 – 2009, he served as Treasurer of the Floyd County Democratic Central Committee and in 2010, he was elected President of the Floyd County Democrat Men’s Club. Dickey has also held positions in the Young Democrats at both the local and state levels, and currently serves as Parliamentarian of the state organization. Dickey is a member of the River Hill Economic Development District and Regional Planning Commission, the New Albany Rotary Club, and the New Albany Redevelopment Commission among other organizations. He lives in New Albany with his wife April and son Ashton.

Stacy Deck – Vice Chair
Stacy Deck was first elected to the position of Vice Chair in 2009. Passionate about improving her community, she holds a Bachelor’s degree in education from Indiana University-Bloomington, and Masters and PhD degrees in social work from the University of Louisville. She is a graduate of Leadership Southern Indiana. Deck is active in the Metropolitan Housing Coalition, and serves on the Board of Directors for the Coalition for the Homeless and the Emerging Workforce Initiative. Stacy and her husband, Steve Wirth, live in Edwardsville and have four children.

Sarah Bonifer – Secretary
Sarah Bonifer works as a preschool teacher and has a Master’s Degree in English from Indiana University-Bloomington. Self-described as a “political enthusiast,” Bonifer previously worked on political campaigns and served as Secretary for Jeff Gahan’s successful 2011 Mayoral campaign. Bonifer is a resident of New Albany, where she lives with her husband, Eric Condon.

Shane Gibson – Treasurer
Shane Gibson is a licensed attorney in Kentucky and Indiana with over 10 years experience in all phases of litigation. He received his law degree from the University of Louisville and undergraduate degree from Indiana University – Purdue University Fort Wayne. Gibson has served in several local government positions, including as a Floyd County Deputy Prosecuting Attorney and Corporate Council for the City of New Albany. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for Life Spring. In 2010, he ran for State Representative for District 72. Gibson lives in New Albany with his wife, Shannon, and three children.

Youth is served: Time for the Democratic Spring here in Floyd County?

The Floyd County Democratic Party just got a lot younger ... in terms of its leadership, at least. As the incoming chairman Adam Dickey explains:

I'm honored to have been elected as your Floyd County Democratic Chairman during (Saturday's) Central Committee reorganization election. Congratulations to Vice Chair Stacy Deck, Secretary Sarah Bonifer, and Treasurer Shane Shane L. Gibson. Together, we look forward to building our party over the next four years in Floyd County. I'd also like to that retiring Chairman John Wilcox, Secretary Tony Toran, and Treasurers Douglas England and Sam Locke for all their hard work over the past several year. I am proud to be a Floyd County Democrat!

In various announcements referencing the leadership contest outcome, I saw no mention of Official Liaison to the Antebellum Dixiecrat Wing of the party, but perhaps he or she is on the down low. Maybe they've finally moved away, died or switched parties.

Whatever.

So, will new and refreshed management alone be capable of propelling the party into the 1990s?

(One step at a time, please; calendars are chronological, after all)

Until tangible evidence of progress is seen, and while sincerely wishing the very best to the party's new leaders, I must fall back on these words.

The (local Democratic Party's) platform is invisible. It is a gaping chasm divided between equal parts impotence and vacuity, one that has led us to the current doltish impasse, whereby almost every elected city office is held by a card-carrying Democrat, and yet we suffer perpetual gridlock as the party stands by, mute, impassive, and apparently suffocating from the electoral delusion that having Bob Caesar as a “Democrat” is somehow useful to civilization in the broader sense, and for their own organizational prospects in the narrower one.

And so, faced with a local Democratic Party seemingly unable to reinvent itself, shall independents and contrarians like me grimace and give a second look to the Republicans and Dave Matthews for … um … er … well … on second thought, not at all.

There simply aren’t enough showers and cigarettes available to make that feeling of grimy dirtiness go away, and so inescapably, depressingly, I return to Square One. In the past, I’ve always rationalized my local voting choices by paraphrasing a Republican, Honest Abe Lincoln:

If I could defeat these Republicans without voting for any Democrat I would do it, and if I could defeat them by voting for all the Democrats I would do it; and if I could defeat them by voting for some Democrats and leaving others alone I would also do that.

They just don't make Republicans like Abe any longer. Regrettably, hereabouts, they seem not to be making Democrats in any recognizable form whatever. Bizarrely, I suppose it won’t stop me from voting for some and perhaps even all of them, while holding my breath – yet again.

DNA party congress selects Politburo as Gorbachev flees to Birdseye.

Hard work is wasted if it isn't smart work.
-- Graffito

Develop New Albany’s annual party is tonight, and the Sweet Home Alabaminator reports a change in leadership. The incoming president is Joe LaRocca, head of the YMCA.

LaRocca told the newspaper that DNA wants to work with other organizations, and such a stance is welcomed. I stand ready to lead my people to DNA’s door. After all, new presidents always get a honeymoon.

At the same time, how do we know there’s been a change?

Cooperation implies a semblance of genuine outreach and compromise. In fairness, it also suggests a systems analysis, not just of DNA, but of the other organizations involved.

Who’s doing what? Why, and for what reasons? Is any of it truly worthwhile? Where does the Gahan Administration stand? And so on.

Admittedly, I’m skeptical. If the late, unlamented DNA/UEA marketing project is the model, or if the city again will be seeking to anoint and endow winners as it did during the last England administration (see “108K Solutions We Have Known”), then DNA isn’t worth a second glance, at least yet.

Conversely, if DNA decides to come to the table prepared to listen to other points of view in something shared from the grassroots up, as opposed to dictated from the lofty heights down, it could be a good thing, even after all of the organization’s stone-deaf past missteps. It’s never too late to start all over again, and no less than Ronnie RayGun himself said: "Trust, but verify."

Sadly, the best reason for renewed sighs aloud and doubt as to DNA’s willingness to evolve is found in the newspaper’s coverage:

The size of the organization’s board of directors will grow from 10-12 members to 21 representatives, LaRocca said. Of the new additions, the Develop New Albany board will have more public officials from the city represented.

As well as more realtors, lawyers and retirees, if the on-line list is any indication.

Note simply that an entity proudly billing itself as a “business-promotion” organization is stating aloud that in order to better promote business, it is adding more city officials. Think about that, and perhaps you’ll share my puzzlement, because wouldn’t business promotion as a stated objective be better served by including ... could it be ... more business owners as board members?

Of course, there are a few DNA-member businesses, but perhaps the major incongruity is this: On the enlarged board, there is precisely one owner of a retail business in the whole of the city.

I mention this in order to ask another question: What has been the unquestioned prime mover of downtown New Albany during the past five years?

The answer: The food and drink segment, without which there would be no downtown New Albany revitalization at all, period, and so, with DNA eager to claim responsibility for this same revitalization, how many food and drink establishments are member businesses?

Only River City Winery and Wick’s.

How many are on the DNA board?

None, unless we count John Neace, who owns JR’s but is not identified as such on the web site.

Maybe, just maybe, this state of perpetual under-representation on the board of an organization that seeks to take credit for revitalization, as the shortage pertains to those types of business that actually have implemented the revitalization, tells us what we need to know about the odds of zebras changing stripes any time soon.

What about me?

I’m forever the cockeyed optimist.

Seriously.

I believe that Joe LaRocca will purge the DNA same-cadre-as-always demons, freshen the bloodlines, engage the business community, honestly examine DNA’s institutional nothingness, and implement a series of hard-hitting reforms designed to actually DO SOMETHING to promote business rather than merely writing glowing press releases after someone else's fact.

It’ll be New Albany, “Come To Perestroika City,” a place we can be proud to inhabit, work and play.

(Boy, I could use an ice-cold Budweiser right about now.)

ORBP: "It's just further proof that the powers that be don't really give a damn."

Two very good comments on this morning's ...

"In which the newspaper documents the ORBP's downtown cluster f*** on the Indiana side."

2 Comments - Show Original PostCollapse comments

 Iamhoosier said...

This article ran a few days ago in the Courier Journal & gave me the chills. They are just trying to meet the statutory requirements. Not really trying to learn anything. It's just further proof that the powers that be don't really give damn. Read this article if you haven't already. http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2012304110051

9:59 AM

 

 Jeff Gillenwater said...

I read that, too, Mark. They don't even know what the Boston group is studying, except that it doesn't include Floyd County at all even though the finance plan assumes the Sherman Minton will be tolled along with the other interstate bridges in the fairly near future. This whole deal has gone well beyond differences of opinion and has for a long time been occurring in a realm of unscrupulousness in which most people of conscience would refuse to partake. There is a tremendous amount of shame to be shared surrounding this project. I'm not sure how Daniels, Clere, Grooms, Stemler, Finn, et al, look themselves in the mirror. And for what? Some sense of contrived self-importance? Some ego-based delusion that says their status trumps the basic decency they owe their neighbors? Or is it just plain cowardice and lack of character? They will rightfully be recorded in our history as examples of would-be leaders who not only forgot how to be men but didn't think the loss was worth caring about.

10:40 AM

 

With Wassmer out, meet our first selection as 1Si's "Kingpin for a Week."

It's now official, but on Wednesday, as we paused to consider that Jody (Wassmer), we hardly knew ye, loyal reader TLB posted this perceptive note at Facebook.

I would like to announce that I have accepted the post of CEO of One Southern Indiana. I regret that I have to step down on Monday. I treasure our time that we have worked together.

He’s stumbled upon a fantastic idea, and it is our pleasure to introduce a new NAC reality series, “Kingpin for a Week.”

We now are accepting applications, suggestions, nominations and inquisitions for this prestigious honor, because we’ll be selecting a new 1Si head cheese each Friday -- that is, until a real one is temporarily positioned by the rudderless organization itself , after which we’ll play it by ear.

Today’s choice is the easiest of all, so let's have a drum roll, please:

Meet the new 1Si CEO for the week of February 24 – March 1 of 2012

It's Benny Breeze!